THE BIRTHPLACE OF MATTHEW PRIOR. 77 



No entries of the name have been found at Corfe Mullen 

 (1652). 



At Canford the registers have been searched from 1650 to 

 1740 ; but no record of any Prior has been discovered. It 

 is just possible that the books may have been carelessly 

 kept in 1664, as the following extract shows that they were 

 ten years later 



" Memorandum that these Christenings, Burialls, and 

 Marriages war not sett down which arr underwritten from the 

 year 1673 to 1674 with severall other Christnings, &c., by 

 reason this Register Book was in the custody of Mr. William 

 Beaumont, Vicar, who by reason of his age was unmindful 

 of it." 



At Wareham the register does not go back further than 

 1762. 



At H or ton the name of Prior is not mentioned. 



At Hinton Martd I am told that an old Dissenting family 

 named Prior used to reside ; the old man died recently, 

 and his widow moved to Parkstone. 



I have been able to find no mention of his baptism in the 

 Wimborne Minster Parish Registers ; and Hutchins (before 

 1774) found none ; though presumably the registers were in 

 a better condition and consequently more legible 135 or 140 

 years ago than they are at the present time. 



If Matthew Prior's parents were Dissenters, it would most 

 probably mean that he would not be baptised in Church, 

 and consequently that his name would not appear in the 

 baptismal registers. It sometimes, however, happens that 

 there is a separate page in the registers on which the births 

 of Dissenters' children are inscribed. In the third volume 

 of the registers belonging to Wimborne Minster (1694-1764), 

 there are three pages in which " Dissenters' births " are regis- 

 tered, 62 in number between the years 1694 and 1771. There 

 is no corresponding list in the earlier volumes, and even 

 this list does not seem to have been carefully kept there 

 being in one or two places gaps of ten years without entries 

 being made. 



